House of Eleven Gables Part 2

With all my talk of this house, I thought I'd gradually add more and more of my pictures from the site, pictured above is an "unfinished" part of the house, featuring a rather large hole in the ceiling and some original furniture that has been stored over here for whatever reason. There's dust and spiders absolutely everywhere, and even an old meat locker to my left. I shall be reporting back soon with some more photos.

What is Happiness?

During WISE class, we examined an an article that revisited the idea of happiness. Aristotle once said that above all else, men and women seek happiness, and everything we seek is only because we expect it to make us happy. Aristotle had a good idea going there, because I will admit yes, everything I do can be connected back to my own well-being an happiness, even things I don't particularly enjoy doing I do because I will supposedly reap the benefits of it later. For example, I don't exactly enjoy taking tests, and besides the fact that I have to, I take them because it is (supposed to) improve my grade, furthering my education and bringing me one step closer to graduating and being able to be on my own and free. As I said, it can all be connected somehow. But, the author of this article revisits this idea and adds his own interpretation: He states that when we are so occupied by something that we do not have to think of  how it will make us happy in the end, we are experiencing real happiness. The idea is called "flow", and you can't work for it, or try to find it, it happens on its own when one's skills and challenges are at an equilibrium.

This brings me to the first question: When do you feel the most happy? If I had to pick a situation above all others when I felt happy it would have to be when I was with my best friend. Just when we're together by ourselves we both seem pretty damn happy, and in those moments I am not thinking of anything else besides being with that person, I'm not even thinking about how happy it makes me until afterwards, in the moment I'm just feeling it and letting it happen. We don't have to entertain one another, we don't even have to talk to each other, there's just a sheer contentment that exists. True friendship is when you don't have to bore one another with small-talk, and you can both just shut up and live in the moment. Yet being around him is something I work hard to set up, we have to make plans to be able to hang out with each other, which arguably is me working towards happiness, so in some ways I disagree with the author, because happiness can be worked towards, all that matters is how you feel in the moment. Pictured on the right is me with my horse Annie, riding horses has always been another thing that distracts me from everything else in life and arguably brings me happiness.

In terms of my WISE project, I'm very content when I'm out in the field doing work with my partner, yet that takes a lot to set up, and can bring lots of stress. I guess that my challenges certainly do outweigh my skills in this situation because that's the whole point of a WISE project, earning new skills and using them to make a final product. To try and achieve more happiness in my project, I must work on improving my skills, both my investigation skills and WISE blogging skills etc. It was a lot easier earlier in the year when the deadlines were farther away. Anyways, I continue to seek happiness like the rest of the human race, and I'll probably never be able to really explain what it is, nor will I be able to tell you when I find it.

A Review of Some Interesting Photos

Trap cameras have been used since the 90s for capturing photos of wildlife without disturbing the animal or frightening it away. Because of this, paranormal investigators have often used them in hopes of capturing rare glimpses of spirits. Often, the images captured resemble blurs, and to many people seem to be significant evidence of life on the other side, but to determine the validity of the use of these cameras, one must first understand how they work, and what, in theory, we are(trying) to capture on film.

A trap camera works by utilizing a motion, infrared, or light beam trigger. When something moves, the beam is triggered and activates the shutter. Although this is very effective in photographing wildlife, even the smallest movements, such as a leaf moving in the wind, can set off the camera.  This means, that for the camera to be set off, something of matter has to move, and depending on your definition of a spirit, it may or may not contain matter. The solution to this problem is an infrared trigger. It is hypothesized among the supernatural community that spirits give off unusually hot or cold heat signatures, this a sudden gust of cold air could set off the infrared trap camera. While Ghost Hunters of the Fingerlakes do not elaborate on what type of trap camera they used, they have provided images that were captured by trap cameras.

In this first photo on the left, a psychic that had been brought in reported a large black mass floating above them. Later, this was caught on a trap camera. The black mass does not appear to represent any type of form or figure, but the fact that it is so solid and appears to be moving could confirm that it is not a simple out of place shadow. Although, one can investigate the various plausible options for this occurrence, such as a small bug such as a fly, flying in front of the camera. A bug would theoretically be going slow enough to trigger the camera, but fast enough to not appear properly rendered on film, thus creating a blur. Then again, the shape that is being formed by whatever the object is, is very sharp and geometric, and even a creature going very fast would still form a somewhat organic shape. Conclusion: not enough evidence to be pronounced a supernatural occurrence, but no obvious natural explanation.

Next we have a photo of a room in a notoriously haunted house that was snapped by a team member and not a trap camera. As you can see, there appears to be a small string of white light above the window towards the right. This has an obvious explanation, and can be attributed to a small piece of dust floating trough the air close to the lens. Often dust is clumped together in very small strings, as one can see when bright light shines through a window into a room. Dust floats just slowly enough that is can be captured on film as it floats by, and due to its minuscule size and the camera being focused on the room, it appears as a string of white light. While I may be wrong, the explanation for this seems obvious to me.

What we have next is probably the most interesting of the photos, and certainly raises the most questions. This set of three photos in a row was taken by a trap camera, and appear to be taken right after one another. Although, the differences in lighting in the photos could indicate otherwise. First we see a plain empty room, and it is unclear what set off the trap camera. In the second photo, there is a very clear image of a woman sitting as if at a desk, even though she is not facing the desk that is actually there. In the third photo, an investigator moves over to the laptop, seemingly intersecting her, as she looks like she is beginning to fade away. The clarity of the figure in these photos is impeccable, and rather surprising, as photos of "spirits" are often too blurry to make out. This though, is clearly a woman. Because the investigator moved over to the laptop, it is obvious that she was not visible to him, which indicates that she is indeed not made out of  matter, which begs the question, how did this figure set off the trap camera? As I mentioned earlier, the camera could be using infrared triggers, but it is not clear. Some theories state that spirits can be made out on film and not to the human eye, which begs yet another question, what does the camera see that we do not? No matter what the scientific basis for these photos, they are extremely interesting and are enough evidence to lead to further investigation of the site.

In Mulder We Trust

If you have ever watched " The X-Files" you know that agents Mulder and Scully are juxtaposed to show the contrasting beliefs of fanatics and skeptics. This eventually leaves all of us fans wondering, "Am I Mulder or am I Scully?". In reality, we'd all like to be Scully. Sure, who wouldn't want to be a sexy paranormal investigator from the 90's, but thats not the real reason we want to be her. She represents the skeptics among us, and in many ways we'd all like to believe that we're rational, and scientific. Who wouldn't want to be logical? But, you'll find that the majority of people out there have mindsets more similar to agent Mulder, we want to believe, and often we're driven by our own personal reasons to do things. After some soul searching, it has occurred to me that the reason I am doing this project is because I want to find something. Thats much more exciting than making some good scientifc observations about things that can be explained by ordinary events. No matter how scientific I try to be, I'll always end up looking for something fantastic, which means I'll be inherently biased. I'll just have to keep that in mind when investigating.

What Am I Doing

Deadlines? Oh boy. This, is indeed a topic that I have much experience with, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I'm good with them. My relationship with deadlines could be described as chaotic, disorderly, unpredictable, and entropic. I recall my early years of high school, in which my ability to meet these looming endpoints called deadlines was pretty straightforward. Be given an assignment, be told when the assignment is due by,  do the assignment by that date, and hand it in. As my years in this penitentiary have passed, the deadlines became looser, and my ability to meet them became more and more relaxed, until senior year when it seemed I had dug myself into a grave and promptly sat in it waiting for someone else to start shoveling dirt onto me. I've found that this is what it feels like to be behind. I've spent many hours contemplating as to why I would do such a thing to myself, surely I have enough free time to complete things. Much of my time from elementary school to now was spent being praised for being a prodigy, which unfortunately gave me the idea that I was above doing the menial tasks I was presented in school. An existential crisis did not help this situation, as I was left asking questions such as "why am I doing this?", "what is the point?", and of course " We're all gonna die anyways, why should I waste my time working on these mediocre assignments for someone else when I could be enjoying my time here on this rock floating through space we call Earth?". Perhaps I had spent too much time around stoned college drop-outs. Yeah, that was probably it.
The point is, deadlines remained important even though my views on them deemed them unimportant. Now that I've been accepted into my top school, I've started to realize that I really need to stop fucking around with deadlines. They're here for a reason, and they'll probably be here for the rest of my miserable life. As Mr. Carver says, "You know you're an adult when you're miserable all of the time." Though I would probably never admit it to Mr. Carver, this statement really helped me realize that I am not the only one on this Earth that feels things such as this, and this is all inevitable so I should really stop fighting it. I've found that it helps me to divide my work into smaller tasks, and create checklists out of them. If you look at all your work as one big task, you'll probably be too overwhelmed to do it. But, if you can complete one part of the task at a time, it feels as though you're completing more tasks than you actually are. Thus, an increase in one's self esteem and ability to complete work. Even though every single student hates to hear these words, you can do so much if you just apply yourself and stop spending all of your time watching Breaking Bad.